Azerbaijan is behind the countries of Central Asia, Africa and the Persian Gulf in the Freedom Index

Baku/06.05.22/Turan: According to the "Freedom Index-2022" of the international organization for the protection of journalists "Reporters Without Borders" (RBG), Azerbaijan traditionally  is behind not only its neighbors in the South Caucasus, but also from the countries of Central Asia, ahead of only Turkmenistan, Chairman of the National Council of Democratic Forces (NCDF) Jamil Hasanli wrote about this on his Facebook page.

Azerbaijan entered the group of countries with a non-free press,  and ranks  the 154th between Belarus and Russia.

“Our nearest neighbors – Georgia and Armenia  rank respectively  the 89th and 51st. Because of the long-term policy of the authorities to suppress freedoms, Azerbaijan is now behind Central Asia, with the exception of Turkmenistan, Hasanly notes.

According to him, the fears of many democratically minded people that Azerbaijan is turning into a “Central Asian state” in terms of the level of freedoms are becoming a reality. Moreover, Azerbaijan is now lagging behind even the poorest countries in Africa, such as Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Western Sahara, Uganda and the Arab monarchies - the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Qatar.

According to Hasanli, after the adoption of the new law on media, the introduction of unified journalistic cards, the media register, Azerbaijan may be in the last ranks of 180 countries of the world. --06B--